Sarah John

Research Director

Sarah John oversees FairVote research, analysis, and special project studies on electoral reforms. Her interests center on electoral system reforms – such as ranked choice voting and fair representation – with a particular emphasis on historical reform movements in the United States. Originally from Australia, Sarah has a PhD in political science from Flinders University. Her dissertation explored the development of campaign finance regulation in the U.S., Canada and Australia in the 1970s. She has presented papers on her work to many international conferences and has published in the Australian Journal of Political Science and the Australian Journal of Politics and History.

From 2012 to 2014, Sarah taught undergraduate students in American politics and civics at California State University, Fullerton. Into the future, Sarah is interested in developing a wider understanding of reform and political change and looks forward to pursuing those perspectives in her work with FairVote.

Posts by Sarah John

Posted on November 11, 2016

The 2016 U.S. House election was a better election for incumbents than 2014, and one in which the nation was split down the middle. The incumbency bump added eight points to the average incumbent’s margin of victory and only 12 seats (3%) of seats changed hands.

Posted on November 06, 2016

On Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Professor Alan I. Abramowitz writes that it is incumbency, not gerrymandering that is the reason the Democrats are unlikely to win a U.S. House majority, even with a Clinton landslide. FairVote agrees, to a point.